Pipe moorings from Alakopru dam to be laid end of year

Pipe moorings from Alakopru dam to be laid end of year

Materials to moor the water pipe which will run from Alakopru dam in south Mersin to Gecitkoy dam in North Cyprus will be laid at the end of 2013/start of 2014.

Jumbo Shipping has been awarded a contract by Malaysian pipe lay contractor, Sigur Ros. Under the contract Jumbo, with the heavy lifting vessel (HLV) Fairplayer will oversee transportation and installation of 126 gravity anchor spreads in water depths up to 1,400m, starting end 2013-beginning 2014.

Project management and engineering will be carried out by Jumbo who will undertake collection of the materials in the port of Mersin Tasucu Seka in Turkey and transportation to the offshore location and installation.

The materials will be loaded on board using the vessel’s 900t mast cranes. The anchor spreads, which will consist of a 230t gravity anchor, tether wire and subsea buoy will be used to moor a pipeline with a 1,600mm diameter, running 80km from Turkey to North Cyprus. The pipeline, in spans of approximately 500m, will be suspended, floating at a depth of approximately 250m.

Unseasonable weather giving choppy seas had delayed the pipe laying, pushing the completion of the project on to November 2014.

The water from Turkey will initially go direct to Nicosia. Only after that will it be distributed from Lefke to Karpaz.